[GoldenMbuna]

Bought 5 tiny CPDs on Saturday and everything seemed fine. Woke up Sunday morning and one was dead. Then I came home from work today and found another one. I dont know whats happening they seemed fine. I have 5kh, 12 gh
7.6 ph and ammonia and nitrites are 0.

 

[ngrubich]

What are your nitrates reading?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Sorry to hear it! :icon_sad:

Where'd you get them, and how did you acclimate them to your tank?

 

[GoldenMbuna]

I bought them from a local LFS. I dripped tank water into the water they were in for 1 hour. Then i put them in the tank. They seemed fine and they were swimming around being playful. I also have 5 amano shrimp and 3 corys in the tank and they are fine.

 

[GoldenMbuna]

What are your nitrates reading?

My Nitrates are at a steady 5ppm. I dose with seachem flourish, trace, iron and excel.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Do you know the parameters of the water at the store where you got them? If their water is very different from yours, perhaps 1 hour acclimation wasn't enough?

Changes are always hard on such tiny fish. :/

 

[GoldenMbuna]

Not sure what there water parameters were. I feel bad for them they were so tiny and cute. Next time I will acclimate them for maybe 2 hours or more.
Thanks

 

[wrm130]

what temp is your tank?

 

[garfieldnfish]

CPDs like it a little cooler than most tropicals but I keep and breed them in Atlanta and they will survive and do ok in tanks from 68 to 76 degrees. My tanks reach 80 in the summer, breeding then stops but the fish make it through the summer months. They are, however, sensitive fish and don't handle stress well. I had bad experiences with shipping them so I only breed what I can sell locally. How much water flow is in your tank? When I got my first few I had a lot of losses until I realized that the current was too strong for them. They are not strong swimmers.
Also I kept some of my adults with Amano shrimp at one point only to find my Amano shrimp to disappear. Out of 6 Amanos only 3 were left when I realized that there was a problem. The Amanos that were left are alive and well in another tank now. I am not 100% sure if the CPDs did the other one in or if my black darter tetras were responsible but I cannot rule out the CPDs. So please watch out for your shrimp. On the other hand how small are your CPDs? If they are really tiny, the Amano shrimp may have had a hand in their demise as they can be pretty aggressive for shrimp.

 

[GoldenMbuna]

My water temp goes from 72 - 79 degrees and my amano shrimp don't bother them at all but the cpds are very tiny maybe the size of a nickel. My water flow maybe a little strong but Iam unable to control it. I fed them some daphnia today and they went nuts for it. I plan to buy at least 6 - 7 more.

Thanks

 

[Oceangirl]

Do you run bright lights? Like is this a tank you have bright lights or light on for a certain period of time? CPDS when they are tiny and shipped like this to the store are VERY VERY sick and malnourished. They haven't been fed well, (most given flake if anything), and will be VERY shocked from all the hustle and bustle. Take them out and put them in a Q tank with LOTS AND LOTS of plastic plants, like you cannot see them. Then feed them up, and deworm them. They have sunked in bellies don't they? That's because they are fed crap at the store. You need VERY low light, they are very shy and are being out competed for food, and the lights aren't helping. They need a low light tank, for the first couple weeks. To get used to you, it took me 2 months to convince the ones I have now to eat in front of me, and tolerate the light on. Once a month has past you should be clear, also they don't like a lot of flow in the beginning, once fed up and pretty then they like moderate flow in the tank.

Food to feed to help them adjust
Daphia
Decapped brine
Live Brine shrimp
Blood worms

 

[lauraleellbp]

My water flow maybe a little strong but Iam unable to control it.

What kind of filter do you have?

If your CPDs were wild-caught, it may take a little bit of work on your end to acclimated them to non-live foods.

If you've got live daphnia, I'd try slowly transitioning them to frozen daphnia, then frozen daphnia mixed up with some crushed flake food, and so on.